Kami Review: Over 9000 Different Folds

I selected to play through and review Kami purely on the basis that “Kami” (Japanese for “God”) is a character in what I believe is the greatest animated series of my 90’s childhood, DragonBall Z. While there is a Japanese vibe to the game, it is quite the opposite of the power pulverizing, fury flying, constipated combat I was hoping for. While Goku pushes his body to the limit, Kami will empower your mind.

Puzzle games tend to have a Grandfather clock type label in the gaming world. However let us remember that not all forms of entertainment are necessarily food fight type fun. Surely there must be a demand for this type of activity if Lumocity.com can afford to relentlessly stuff ads down our throats.

This kind of reminds me of Wario for some reason… Can’t you see the eyes and mustache?

The concept is simple and easy to grasp. A certain amount of turns are allotted for the player to make the screen all of one colour out of the three that are presented. This is accomplished by a process of folding over adjacent tiles to a respective colour. Ways to accomplish the main goal varies as levels demonstrate different schemes and patterns. Moreover, the game is incredibly well put together whereby not a lot comes across as ‘been there, done that’. To elaborate, there are five stages to complete consisting of nine puzzles each. Each stage has differentiating flare and spectacle. As one could expect, puzzles become more difficult with progression. However, certain puzzles can be done in one take while other supposedly more difficult will have two sides of the brain fencing with each other over one hundred takes.

It’s harder to get perfect than it looks.

The premium puzzle section will now have one side of the brain extorting protection money from the other side. This section is a heavily saturated cluster of different patterns which replaces the simpler colour tiles. For a person with an average intelligence quotient many of these mind teasers are quite hopeless at first glance. No doubt that the game offers challenge and requires persistence.

Despite all of the praise and if I may cross reference the game title and DBZ Kami, I will say that playing this game at some moments is similar to painting scenery in the hyberbolic time chamber. At times, the trial and error process used becomes utterly hopeless.

It’s as hard as it looks.

Kami is a secondary type game; a genuine and worthy replacement of the solitaires in the computer world. If you are playing another game and are waiting for a party to gather, people to logon to skype, or finishing a long respawn because you keep feeding the other team, it is great to have this running in windowed mode as something to pass the time.

At the end of the day (which equates to 365 days the players feels like her/she spends in the hyperbolic time chamber), the game delivers preciously what it promises and does not disappoint in that regard. More puzzles would have been nice.